From Old-Age Assistance to Supplemental Security Income:

2020 ◽  
pp. 235-264
Author(s):  
JILL QUADAGNO
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
Supplemental Security Income ◽  
Old Age Assistance

Save Our Senior Noncitizens: Extending Old Age Assistance to Immigrants in the United States, 1935–71

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Cybelle Fox
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Old Age ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Secure Access ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Old Age Assistance ◽  
Social Security Act

Abstract When do states grant social rights to noncitizens? I explore this question by examining the extension of Old Age Assistance (OAA) to noncitizens after the passage of the 1935 Social Security Act. While the act contained no alienage-based restrictions, states were permitted to bar noncitizens from means-tested programs. In 1939, 31 states had alienage restrictions for OAA. By 1971, when the Supreme Court declared state-level alienage restrictions unconstitutional, only eight states still did. States with more Mexicans and Asians were slower to repeal restriction, however. Using in-depth case studies of New York, California, and Texas, I demonstrate the importance of federal and state institutional arrangements and immigrant political power for the extension of social rights to noncitizens. I also show that to secure access to OAA, immigrant advocates adapted their strategies to match the institutional and political context.

The Social Security Program of the United States

1936 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 455-493 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph P. Harris
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Security ◽  
Social Security Program ◽  
Unemployment Compensation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Old Age Assistance ◽  
State Unemployment

The Federal Social Security Act, which may be regarded as the central core of the social security program, is an omnibus act, containing the following features: (1) a national, compulsory oldage insurance plan, covering all employees except certain exempted groups; (2) two measures designed to stimulate the states to enact state unemployment compensation laws, namely, (a) a uniform nation-wide tax upon employers, against which a credit is allowable for contributions made to approved state unemployment compensation plans, and (b) subsidies to the states to cover the administrative costs of unemployment compensation; and (3) grants-in-aid to the states for old-age assistance, pensions for the blind, aid to dependent children, child welfare, maternal and child health, vocational rehabilitation, and public health activities. It is estimated that each of the two forms of social insurance will apply to about 25,000,000 wage-earners, and, when the maximum rates become effective in 1949, will involve annual contributions of nearly $3,000,000,000. This amount is approximately equal to the normal annual expenditure of the federal government prior to 1930. In addition, the grants-in-aid to the states were estimated by the actuaries of the President's Committee on Economic Security to reach a total of a half-billion dollars annually within a few years.History of the Federal ActWhen, in a message to Congress on June 8, 1934, the President indicated that he would submit a program of social insurance for consideration at the following session, the Wagner-Lewis unemployment insurance bill and the Dill-Connery old-age assistance bill were pending. Shortly afterwards, the President, by executive order, created the Committee on Economic Security, consisting of the Secretaries of Labor (chairman), Treasury, and Agriculture, the Attorney-General, and the Federal Emergency Relief Administrator. This committee appointed Professor Edwin E. Witte, of the University of Wisconsin, as executive director, and proceeded to build up a staff of actuaries and experts to study the whole problem of economic insecurity, and to prepare recommendations.

A New Deal for the Alien

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cybelle Fox
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Assistance Programs ◽  
Aid To Dependent Children ◽  
The Social ◽  
Disparate Treatment ◽  
Old Age Assistance ◽  
Social Security Act ◽  
European Immigrants

This chapter focuses on the Social Security Act and the disparate treatment of blacks, Mexicans, and European immigrants in the administration of Social Security, Unemployment Insurance, Aid to Dependent Children, and Old Age Assistance. Though framed as legislation that would help the “average citizen,” scholars have shown that the Social Security Act in fact excluded the vast majority of blacks from the most generous social insurance programs, relegating them to meager, decentralized, and demeaning means-tested programs. European immigrants, by contrast, benefited from many of the provisions of the Social Security Act, and in at least some respects, they benefited more than even native-born whites. The net result of these policies was that blacks were disproportionately shunted into categorical assistance programs with low benefit levels, European immigrants were disproportionately covered under social insurance regardless of citizenship, and Mexicans were often shut out altogether.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document